Johnboy

SGA

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Claims of another chemical attack on civilians emerged from Syria on Monday. Activists reported the attack in the town of Telmanes, in the province of Idlib. Doctors at the Al Seddiq Hospital said they received 200 individual cases of people affected by the strikes, many of whom were children. The reports claim that barrel bombs containing chlorine were dropped from helicopters. This is the latest in a series of chemical attacks that have reportedly taken place across the country since April 11 and are being blamed on the Syrian regime.

I do realise you are in attention seeking mode today but please tell me what on earth would be wrong with a monument to each of those campaigns?

Come to think of it, you have not been paying attention have you. All around this country tomorrow will be people attending dawn services (apart from Helen Clark, she never thought it was worth getting up early on ANZAC day) most of these services will be held and WWI memorials.

Of all the conflicts we have fought in there is no doubt that the poor bastards who served in Vietnam received the worst treatment when they got home, these men and their families (and those of us who supported them) deserve a place that honours them.
It is time that we as a nation welcomed these men home properly.

leftyliberal

griffith: If you’re out Awhitu Road way (nice spot), then yeah, non-existent service. There’s a (single) commuter bus from Waiuku to Papakura at 6:25 Mon-Fri in the AM and then back in the PM, but that’s pretty much it. Two hours to Britomart that way. Would be 30mins quicker to take the car to Papakura and train from there. Probably comparable to a car trip into town at the peak (will be significantly less offpeak ofc).

Johnboy

Don’t forget our Vietnam vet’s went to fight in an American war bb and our dirty little leftie governments starting with Norm and culminating with Helen did there best to denigrate everything America stood for like personal freedom for example.

Our more sensible leaders of today need to tread carefully trying to turn back this national shame that pervades NZ.

stigie

We should accept that there were a vocal minority (despite scum like Clark and Goff trying to rewrite history) against the war and whatever ones views on that matter they should be put aside to honour the fallen. A simple plinth would suffice, something that listed the names of the fallen. It cannot be that hard to find the money for surely?

kowtow

Nostalgia-NZ

‘There were some, such as Emmot Dalton, who saw no contradiction between fighting for the British against the Germans and for the IRA against the British. That is part of the story too.’

Also you need to wonder how it was that men were continued to be sent against machine gun fire, through water, open boats and alighting through narrow ports into a bullet hail. It’s unlikely that the British officer laid such early claim that the troops were landing unopposed if that that were not an expectation in some quarters, or a test in others, early as it was in the history of machine guns holding entrenchment against a foe moving in the difficultly of water before being exposed in open, lower, ground.

SPC

SPC

In riposte to the right wing attempt to own patriotism on this blog.

The veterans who voted in the first Labour government deserve red poppy respect.

And those who ended the white mushroom clouds in the Pacific (third Labour government) and then the atoll to sea pollution from the continuing underground testing do so also. They also defended our region.

As for US ship visits, they are not necessary for our defence. They were part of our contribution to collective security and to back up our multi-lateralist foreign policy. They were sacrificed as part of a campaign to

1. ending testing
2. opt out from defence via nuclear capacity of an ally as contribution to nuclear disarmament
3. the South Pacific as an example of a nuclear free region

(this coincided with the decision of the USSR and USA to withdraw their nuclear weapons from Europe – later Russia and the USA reduced down their nuclear arms stocks).